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THE SOLDIER 



GOD'S MINISTER. 




THE SOLDIER &OD'S MillSri STER. 



DISCOURSE 

DELIVEEED IN THE OONaREGATIONAL OHUROH, 

FITZWILLIAM, N. H., 

Sabbath. Afternoon, October 5, 1862, 



ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEPARTITIE OF A COMPANY OF VOLUNTEERS FOB 
THE SEAT OF WAR, 



WILLIAM L. GAYLORD 



PASTOR OF THE CHVKCH. 



'QUIT YOU LIKE MEN, BE STRONG." 



FITCHBURG: 

PRINTED AT THE ROLLSTONE JOB PRINTING OFFICE, 
1862. 



• z 

FiTzwiLLiAM, N. H., Oct. 16, 1862. 



Rev. WM. L. GAYLORD :— 



Dear Sir — The citizens of this town who have enlisted for the nine months' 
service, and who were particuhirly addressed in your discourse of Sunday after- 
noon, Oct. 5th, desire to signify their approval of your sentiments respecting the 
true mission of tlie soldier in this holy conflict for Liberty, Union, and the main- 
tenance of law. 

Prompted by this desire, and in order also that the truths you inculcated may 
have a wider dissemination, and more lasting influence, it was unanimously 
voted at our meeting, Wednesday evening, October 15th, to request a copy of j'our 
sermon for publication. With many thanks for your kind expressions of sympa- 
thy, and trusting that both those who go, and those who remain, will prove faithful 
to the duties we owe our common country. 

We remain, 

Sincerel)^ yours, 

CHARLES H. WOODS, ) 
CHARLES H. PARKER, ^Committee. 
E. P. PHILLIPS, ) 



FiTZWiLLiAM, N. H., Oct. 16, 1862. 

Gentlemen — Your note of this date is received. I am sincerely grateful for the 
expressions it contains of interest in the discourse prepai-ed at your request, and 
preached on the 5th inst. to the company of volunteers which you represent. 

In the hope that it may fulfill some humble mission of public good, I herel)y 
place it at your disposal for pulilieation. 

With many kind wishes for you wclfiu-e, 

"Very truly yours, 

WILLIAM L. GAYLORD. 

CHARLES H. WOODS, ) 
CHARLES H. PARKER, ^Committee. 
E. P. PHILLIPS, 3 



SERMON. 



RojiANS 13 : 4. 

" HE HEAliETH NOT THE SWOKD IN VAIN : FOK HE IS THE MINISTER OF GOD." 

The whole passage reads thus : — 

" Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power 
but of God : the powers that be are ordained of God. 

Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God : 
and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then 
not be afraid of the power ? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have 
praise of the same : 

For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which 
is evil, be afraid ; for he beareth not the sword in vain : for he is the minister 
of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." 

Human governments are here referred to as being 
of divme ordination ; as having for their object, in the 
mind of God, the development of the highest good for 
mankind. Rulers, in whom is vested the executive 
authority of all rightful governments, are called the 
ministers of God — ministers of good to such as do 
well, but ministers of evil, — of wrath, — to those that 
do wickedly. 

This whole chapter of precepts is based upon the 
single fact that all properly constituted human govern- 
ments receive their authority from the divine govern- 



ment, — that all just laws have their foundation in the 
law of God. It is because all human governments 
exist by this high and divine ordination, because all 
just, human laws derive their authority from the divine 
law, that those who wield executive authority are 
called the " ministers of God." No prophet nor apos- 
tle, — no minister of the grace of Christ ever had the 
seal of a divine appointment placed upon his brow 
more truly than this inspired word confers it upon 
those who, in the relations of civil life, become the 
ministers of God. 

To the obedient, they are ministers for good. To 
the disobedient and refractory, they are the ministers 
of wrath to execute the decrees of divine and human 
justice. 

The citizens of this community, by whose invitation 
the discourse for this interesting occasion has been 
prepared, have enrolled themselves as the defenders of 
their country, its government and its laws, against 
those whose hearts have together counselled treason, 
against whose reeking hands the blood of thousands 
of their brothers — our country's noblest sons — cries 
from the ground into the ears of the God of Abel. 

My friends — my brothers — the position you occupy 
is one of exceeding interest. You have voluntarily 
stepped aside from your accustomed pursuits, that you 
may go forth at your country's call for her defence. 
You are called to hasten to the rescue of that beloved 
flag from the foul hands of traitors who would tear it 
from its noble height : — that flag which has so long 
been, — which is to-day, — which must forever he the 
emblem of constitutional liberty and law. You go to 
protect the sacred institutions of our land, — the sane- 



tuaries, the schools, the homes, the loved ones, — 
parents, wives and children, — that you leave behind 
you. But you have a holier mission than all this. 
The moment you enter upon that service to which the 
Chief Executive calls you, you are no longer only indi- 
vidual members of society, but each one of you be- 
comes a part of that million of noble men whose brave 
hearts wield strong arms to strike down treason wher- 
ever you find it, and to enforce the execution of the 
laws of the land. The chief magistrate of this nation 
no longer sits surrounded by his chosen counsellors, 
swaying the scepter of undisputed authority, but defied, 
insulted, and his authority mocked by a rebel horde, 
he takes to himself the " strong arm of the law," found 
alone, in this last resort, in a million bristling bayonets 
and gleaming sabres, in a million deep-throated mus- 
kets, in ten thousand brazen-mouthed cannon, and in 
the awful tread of ten thousand fiery chargers, and 
stands before the world, — and with him stands every 
man who, in this hour of peril, hastens to his sup- 
port, — the " minister of God ; a revenger to execute 
wrath upon him that doeth evil." 

If the cause which he, with a united, loyal people, 
seeks to maintain and defend, can be vindicated before 
God and man, then we may use with confidence the 
language of the text ; " He beareth not the sword in 
vam : for he is the minister of God." 

The theme involved here, and which may profitably 
occupy our thoughts is this: — 

The soldier as the executor of divine and human 
justice, and the defender of the rights of man. 

As such he " beareth not the sword in vain," because 
he wields it under a divine commission as the cham- 



6 

pion of law, and the constituted order of government 
as established by God for the welfare of mankind. 

The survey of this field of thought will require that 
first of all we vindicate the justice of our cause before 
God and man. 

Two years ago thousands of men in this country 
would have shuddered at the idea of being personally 
engaged in war — in deadly strife for the mastery on the 
field of conflict, who have now gone forth ready to 
die, — yea, burning with a holy zeal to off"er themselves 
a sacrifice, if need be, for the redemption of their be- 
loved land from the death to which traitor hands 
would consign it. Men whose hearts have been bap- 
tized with the spirit of the religion of Him whose gos- 
pel is one of "peace on earth" and "good will to 
men," have yielded everything that before was dear to 
them, of home, of kindred and friends, that, in the 
front ranks of the army of liberty, they may strike for 
God and their country. 

Souls all aglow with love for their divine Lord have 
had breathed upon them His holier spirit until their 
faith has reached out to grasp their bleeding, distracted 
country, that not for themselves, but for God, — for 
His holy cause, — for humanity, — for posterity, and for 
the struggling nations of the Old World, they may 
rescue it from hands that conquer to enslave, and 
whose triumph is ruin. 

What means it ? What has caused the change ? 
What has converted that spirit of peace which our 
holy religion has so long breathed upon the land, 
into a spirit of earnest, defiant purpose to vindicate 
rightful authority, and to establish the supremacy 
of law ? 



I believe it is of God. Men are inspired. A holy 
baptism is upon them, — a baptism of love for their 
country, of justice, of liberty and humanity. They 
have heard the voice of God, — they cannot be deaf to 
the call to do and to die in this service. 

I doubt not that you who are about to follow those 
whose example is before you, have caught the same 
spirit, and are moved by the same noble purpose. 

The question whether it is right to go to the field 
of strife, where you will be called to take the life of 
your fellow man, may not have troubled you greatly, 
or you may have found for it a ready decision. Yet 
it is a stern and terrible necessity which is laid upon 
you, and it is because I believe that you feel it to be 
so, that I take this occasion to present three reasons 
in vindication of our position, either one of which, 
I am confident, is in itself a sufficient warrant, that 
you and all those who seek to sustain the Federal 
Government in this peril, are engaged in a just and 
holy cause. 

First : — It is, in its essential features, the cause 
of Christianity. 

We might maintain this truth on the ground that 
human governments are of divine institution, and that 
in fighting for the maintenance of an established form 
of government which is being assailed for no just and 
reasonable cause, we seek to restore divine not less 
than human authority. But I desire to take the dis- 
discussion of this point into another and important 
direction. The struggle in which we are engaged is 
essentially religious in its character, because, if suc- 
cessful, the results that will be secured will tend to 
the promotion of Christianity, while all the ends 



8 

sought for by those who are opposed to us are wholly 
antagonistic to the spirit of the Bible. 

Now it may be well for us to look at the history of 
the past and to ask, why was this government attacked, 
and why was its power sought to be broken ? It can- 
not be justly claimed by those who seek its overthrow, 
that they do so because it is committed against, or 
because its tendencies are against the Bible, and Chris- 
tianity, and the great claims of justice and humanity. 
The very reason for this assault upon the government, 
and upon the rights of thirty millions of human beings, 
is because those who are engaged in it have seen that 
if the principles which enter into the structure of our 
national institutions are legitimately evolved with free 
scope for development, they directly tend to the moral 
and religious enlightenment of mankind, to the utter 
overthrow of civil and religious despotism everywhere, 
and to the progress of mankind in virtue and hap- 
piness. 

Our foemen have seen these tendencies, and have 
become alarmed because they have seen in them the 
certainty of the speedy and inevitable overthrow of all 
irresponsible and despotic power. So long as they 
could manage the machinery of government to sub- 
serve their own ends, it was well. So long as they 
could suppress the power of truth, or, by political 
intrigue, darken and subvert the counsels of wisdom, 
it was well. They declared that the idea of educating 
the poor and the rich alike was unsafe, and ignorance 
stalked through their land. They declared that the 
Bible could not be put into the hands of the slave with 
safety to the oppressing power, and it was withheld. 
They bought and sold their fellow men as they would 



9 

the dumb brute in the market, and at last baptized the 
most hideous forms of oppression with the holy name 
of Christianity. And so long as they could wield the 
power of the central government to give to all this 
work of evil the dignity of a legal sanction, it was well. 
But the leaven was at work all the while. Christi- 
anity crossed the ocean in the barque that brought our 
noble sires. She had planted foot upon this goodly 
land, and hence she was not to be driven. The lead- 
ers of this revolt, with no dim eye, early saw what 
would be the issue. They saw that the principles of 
the Bible, if permitted to work out their legitimate 
moral effect, would result in the overthrow of oppres- 
sion, — in the enlightenment of mankind, — in the 
redemption of humanity. They saw with alarm the 
dawning light of the coming day of disenthralment to 
earth's oppressed millions. The handwriting upon 
the wall was too plain to be mistaken. They heard 
the voice utter the distinct and awful sentence, " Mene, 
MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN," and like the great Leader of 
the first revolt, when they could no longer rule, deter- 
mined to destroy. Your sacred mission is to stay — 
nay, to strike down the arm of those bloody destroyers 
of order and peace, of law, justice, and humanity. 
And I say the cause is a holy one. It is the cause of 
Christianity, and of God. 

Second : — The second reason I shall present is, that 
our cause is the cause of good government. 

We fight to maintain a government mild in its 
requirements, — impartial in its restraints, — and health- 
ful to the great body politic in all its working. We 
strike to defend and enforce laws based upon just and 
equitable principles. 



10 

It is, undoubtedly, one of the natural rights of 
man to overthrow, by any legitimate means, any form 
of government which is founded, or whose functions 
are exercised, in a spirit of oppression, when the evils 
borne become greater than those involved by a change. 
It is upon this acknowledged right that our Puritan 
sires, vindicated the justice of their cause in throw- 
ing off the bonds of British oppression. 

But what plea can be made by those Southern rebels 
that will stand the test for one moment ? Can they 
say that they have been oppressed in any way by the 
acts of the Federal government ? They have wielded 
the power of that government almost uninterruptedly, 
for the last fifty years, and prostituted it most shame- 
fully to their own aggrandizement. To what single 
act of the government can the leaders of this revolt 
point, and say of it that it was designed, or that it 
tended to deprive them of their just rights, or in any 
way to oppress them I Not one ; — not a shadow, even. 
The charge is absolutely and shamefully false ! The 
history of this rebellion will one day be written candidly 
and faithfully. When this is done, posterity will read, 
to the utter shame of those who seek to extenuate, or 
in any way to apologize for this dreadful wrong, that 
there was not The slightest shadoiv of a just cause for 
complaint. It has been said, — it is still said, — that the 
North has wronged the South by a persistent agitation 
of the great doctrine of human freedom as related to 
the bondmen of the South And what is the meaning 
of this charge I Has the North, by any acts previous 
to the breaking out of this revolt, sought to interfere 
with the institutions of the South in any way that it 
was not her legitimate right to do I She has not. 



11 

The charge is forever false ! The extent of her sin- 
ning, if there be sin at all, is in words, not in deeds. 
And what have these been ^ Simply this. Remem- 
bering the great divine precept, " Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself," she has felt that slavery is wrong, 
and she has spoken as she has felt. And so has God 
said that it is wrong. We have labored, by moral 
and legitimate means, to reach the hearts and con- 
sciences of those who uphold this great wrong, that 
they might themselves decree its overthrow. We have 
felt the terrible enormity of this evil, and it is every 
man's right, — it is his duty to pronounce that to be 
wrong which his moral sense condemns. We have 
done no more. 

And if the free North can be thus vindicated', how 
much more can be said on behalf of the central gov- 
ernment ! It has stretched forth its hands to confer 
blessings innumerable upon those who have claimed 
its protection, and have honored it by their allegiance. 
It has never imposed unnecessary restraints upon the 
liberty of its subjects, but has ever accorded the 
greatest freedom to the individual, consistent with the 
rights of all. To seek the overthrow of this best gov- 
ernment the world has ever seen, is a crime which pos- 
terity will look upon as the blackest that ever disgraced 
the annals of nations. Your mission is to resist this 
attempted destruction, and to strike down the traitor- 
ous hands that are tugging away at the pillars of social 
and political order. 

Fulfill your mission with manly courage, for it is 
the cause of good government against anarchy and 
misrule. And this is again our vindication. 



12 

Third : — The third and final reason which I pre- 
sent is, that our cause is the cause of human freedom. 

It matters not, so far as your divine authority and 
mission are concerned, whether or not freedom is the 
avowed object for which you are called into the field. 
The fact is the same in either case, and the giving or 
the withholding of human enactments or proclama- 
tions, has comparatively little to do with it. 

This is but the re-enactment in a different form, 
and on another scene, of the old conflict between 
despotism on the one hand and human rights on the 
other. So far as our particular ancestry is concerned, 
it began on the plains of Runny mede A. D. 1215, 
between the Feudal lords and the usurping king John 
of England, and in that struggle the cause of freedom 
triumphed, when the Magna Charta was secured ; 
and the seeds of universal, popular liberty were then 
sown, to germinate in future generations. The con- 
flict was repeated on the same soil between the Puri- 
tans and Cavaliers in the seventeenth century ; and 
again the righteous cause triumphed, but only to 
involve its adherents in a new and desperate struggle, 
when in the New World, and under new conditions, 
the American Declaration of Independence, involving 
the principle of universal human rights, was pub- 
lished to the world and maintained. 

It is a part of the same conflict in which we are 
now engaged. It is despotic, irresponsible power on 
one hand, against equal rights on the other, and no 
amount of political trickery, no deceptive power of 
human language can conceal the issue, or hinder long 
the result. 



13 

There are but two fundamental principles in human 
government, and these are directly and widely antago- 
nistic. There may be many modifications of each 
of these, to suit different circumstances and grades of 
human society, but the underlying principle is either 
monarchical or republican. It is either irresponsible, 
centralized power vested in one, or power derived 
from and amenable to the people. Wherever these 
opposing principles come in contact, there always has 
been, and always must be a conflict of moral and 
physical forces. This is the struggle that has raged 
with varying aspects throughout the Old World for 
centuries past. It is now the old conflict re-enacted 
of Despotism against Freedom. 

Mark the issue. 

There was no crowned head here to become the 
representative of the despotic power. There was no 
Feudal system, like that of the middle ages, to grasp 
the right of property, and oppress the poor. There 
was nothing in all this fair heritage to represent des- 
potism until it seized upon the system of American 
Slavery, and there developed itself in its blackest and 
most monstrous form. It is this spirit of despotism 
that we are called to combat. 

There is in this connection a very interesting and 
instructive thought to which I wish to call your atten- 
tion. It is found in a view of the legitimate tenden- 
cies of the spirit and form of the government under 
which we live, as contrasted with those of any and all 
other human governments. The inevitable tendency 
of those principles which lie at the foundation of our 
institutions, if left to their natural working, will 
always and everywhere be towards freedom and uni- 



14 

versal, equal rights. This cannot be said of any other 
form of government. Passing by others, let us take 
as our best example of a monarchy, that of Great Brit- 
ain. There is nothing in it, which is inherent to itself, 
that becomes a moving force in the direction of free- 
dom. Whatever has been gained to the cause of lib- 
erty, has been directly and always against the govern- 
ment, and by concessions forced from it. To illustrate 
my idea, let us take a single fact, viz. : that of the 
existence and the final overthrow of slavery in the 
British dominions. That result was not secured by 
the natural working of the English government and 
institutions, but in spite of it. The Magna Charta was 
obtained as a concession of the ruling power to 
appease the clamor of its subjects, and not as the 
natural working of the fundamental law of the exist- 
ence of that power, as the river flows from its foun- 
tain. And the same may be said of every law which 
has been enacted by the British Parliament, whose 
object was the promotion of freedom. The natural 
tendency of the English government, if it were left 
unrestricted by outside pressure, would inevitably be 
towards despotism and barbarism. And it is my con- 
viction that, in spite of all restraint, it is receding 
towards the Dark Ages. And yet that proud Boaster 
affects to teach America lessons on liberty ! It was 
necessary that the British government should enact a^ 
decree of emancipation, because the slave would never 
have become free without it. There was nothing nat- 
urally working towards freedom in the inherent prin- 
ciples of the civil and political polity of that nation. 
But the case was widely different with America. If 
the principles of the Declaration of Independence, 



15 

and of all our civil and social insritutions had been 
free to work legitimately towards their true end, slav- 
ery, and every form of oppression, would have seen its 
grave long ago. I mean this : — emancipation would 
have become a voluntary, individual act, rather than a 
result of national legislation. Human bondage was 
the natural growth of no fundamental, American prin- 
ciple, but the accidental thing that was forced in 
where it had no place. It was no part of the vital 
fluid, which, coursing through the veins of the body 
politic, should give life and vigor to every member. 
But it was the virus injected into the veins, poisoning 
wherever it went, and causing both moral and physi- 
cal disease and death by its presence. But the nat- 
ural tendencies of our institutions towards universal 
freedom, were subverted by those in the interest of 
despotism, who sought to make slavery the universal 
law, and freedom the accident. They saw the inevi- 
table workings of the principles of justice and human 
rights upon the mind and heart of an enlightened, 
thinking people. They saw that the leaven was at 
work, that the unseen forces of moral, social and 
political progress were seeking their true ends, — the 
enfranchisement of enslaved humanity, — the inevitable 
and speedy overthrow of tyranny. They saw this, and 
were alarmed. Their deep and treacherous designs 
to bury freedom and crown despotism, were beginning 
to be exposed. They had well nigh succeeded in their 
dark and crafty purpose. But they had come one step 
too near the people's rights to keep their base motives 
a secret any longer. A nation of freemen was aroused. 
Upon the sacred altars of freedom, unholy sacrifices 
had been offered. The Goddess of Liberty, at whose 



16 

shrine they paid their homage, had been insulted, and 
men who were born to be free could endure it no 
longer. The trumpet sounded ! The voice of God 
called ! And twenty millions of nature's noble men 
sprang to arms. Your mission is this. In the name 
of God and of religion, we are to reclaim the govern- 
ment from its work of subverting justice, crushing 
truth, and oppressing humanity, to its true and normal 
condition as the Palladium of liberty — the guardian of 
universal right. 

And, further, this is the cause of freedom, because 
it is, as has already been shown, the cause of Christi- 
anity and of the Bible. It is the cause of that relig- 
ion which The Crucified came to promulgate, and 
which must imbue its followers with a holy spirit of 
love for their fellow-men. And here I might well 
indite a new text for your thoughts to dwell upon as 
you go forth to the field of conflict. It is the brief 
but comprehensive declaration of the Founder of our 
holy religion, — the grand initial proclamation when 
He came to establish His blessed kingdom on earth. 
" The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath 
annointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; He 
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
deliverence to the captives, and recovering of sight to 
the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. 

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 

My brethren, if these views that I have presented 
are true, how do they elevate and ennoble our part 
in this great struggle ! With what holy faith should 
they inspire our hearts ! With what burning zeal 
should they nerve our arms ! With what a spirit of 



17 

unshrinking devotion should they fire the soul of every 
hero ! With what imperishable glory will they gild 
the crown of every martyr ! Who would not rather 
die in this holy cause than live to see his country dis- 
tained, dishonored, and sunk in the dark night of bar- 
barism ? 

To the rescue then ! Go ! We would not hold 
you back. Our tears may attest how deep the struggle 
that it costs us to lay you on the altar of love for our 
country, but they shall also be a baptism of love, of 
faith, and of prayer, through which the benediction of 
the holy God shall rest upon you. We have given 
other brothers, husbands, sons, to this holy martyrdom 
for liberty. Go ! Bear to them the assurances of our 
unchanged afi"ection for them, and our unfaltering faith 
in the justness of our cause. Go ! resolved, with them, 
to do and to die for God and your country. Go ! 
strike till the last armed traitor is laid low. Go ! 
strike for truth and liberty ! Strike for your altars ! 
Strike for your sacred sanctuaries ! Strike to defend 
your christian faith ! Strike for the memory of your 
sires ! Strike for the memory of those who have 
already filled a hero's grave ! Strike for the loved ones 
you leave behind ! Strike for God and your native 
land ! 

My brothers, a few more words, and I am done. I 
have tried thus to vindicate our cause in the sight of 
God and man. If this vindication be true, then you go 
as the ministers of God, bearing not the sword in vain. 
If it be true, I give you the Bible, God's revealed word, 
in one hand ; and the sword, which I adjure you never 
to wield in other than a just cause, in the other. Nay, — 
remembering that my poor, bleeding, distracted coun- 



18 

try has claims upon those who minister at God's holy 
altars, which cannot be set aside, I can bid you go^ only 
as I stand ready to take that Bible in hand and bid you 
follow. 

We must be careful, in this strife, to guard our hearts 
against the spirit of vindictiveness and hate towards 
our misguided brethren and foemen. Let no unholy 
passion rankle in our breasts. And, yet, let us not 
forget that we can no longer talk of compromises with 
evil. We have sought, by making every concession, 
by using every argument and persuasion, to avert the 
evils that have so long threatened us, and to convince 
our enemies that they were wrong But it has been of 
no avail ! They have challenged the issue. Let it 
come ! They have invoked the judgment of posterity 
and of mankind. We are ready to meet it. 

The time to preach or pray to the South is ended, 
Nai/ ! — there is a gospel which we are bound to preach 
most faithfully to them. It is " writ in rows of burn- 
ished steel." Its voice is the echomg thunder of ten 
thousand cannon. The mission of the law of love to- 
day is, to light the camp fires of the hosts of freedom 
from the shores of the Atlantic to the foot of the 
Rocky Mountains. It is to strike hands with every 
one who loves his country, until a band of patriots 
shall reach from East to West across the land, who, 
with charged muskets and gleaming bayonets, shall 
march resistlessly onward, the firm earth trembling 
beneath their tread, which, like the roar of many 
waters, shall strike terror to the hearts of traitors, and 
sound the death-knell of tyranny, — and with those, 
who, with songs of freedom upon their lips, shall be 
sworn to sweep treason forever from the land. 



19 

And when this mission shall have been fulfilled, as 
I doubt not it will be; when the broken, bleeding, 
betrayed South shall have learned, by sorrowful expe- 
rience, that they who resist the ordinance of God shall 
receive to themselves the greater condemnation, then 
another mission of love shall be begun, — a mission of 
healing to a bruised and wounded land. Then, they who 
have borne the sword shall carry the Bible, and they 
who have preached the terrible truth of retribution^ 
shall preach the gospel of redemption and sahation. 
Then, other thousands shall go forth to proclaim 
peace and good-will, carrying with them the balm 
of Gilead to pour into the wounds that the sword of 
justice has made. They shall go as angels of mercy 
through every village and hamlet, and into every house- 
hold, scattering everywhere the leaves of the tree of 
life for the healing of the nation. 

Oh ! what a day will that be for our beloved land, 
when, carried through a baptism of fire and of blood, 
struggling through this birth-night of terror and dark- 
ness, it shall experience a resurrection to a new life, 
and to a future whose coming glory already gilds the 
mountain tops. That day of future glory is hastening 
on. That day of a truer and deeper loyalty to God 
and to country, — that day when the oppressor's rod 
shall be broken, when the sigh of no captive spirit 
shall be heard throughout all our fair land. 

Men think— tliey will tell you — that the holy cause 
of freedom is making but tardy progress, or that it is 
making no progress at all. But heed them not. Their 
impatient haste beclouds their judgment, and bewilders 
their faith. Look back and behold what rapid strides 
it has made in our land in the few months that are pastj 



20 

and let your loyal hearts remain true to your country, 
to your rulers, and to your God. God, with His prov- 
idences, moves slowly and with majestic step along the 
ages. If his long-suffering patience can wait six thou- 
sand years for the disenthrallment of earth's enslaved 
millions, shall not our faith and patience endure for a 
twelve-month, while our part of the work is being- 
accomplished. 

But the night is far spent. The night of gloom 
that is upon us must yield to the coming day. The 
darkness slowly breaks before the eye of faith. The 
stars grow dimmer. The day of the Lord is at hand ! 

" The dwellers in the vales and ou the rocks 
Shout to eaeh other ; and the mountain tops 
From distant mountains catcli tlie flying joy ; 
Till nation after nation taught the strain, 
Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round." 

From this survey, 1 must turn your thoughts, in this 
hallowed hour, to the peaceful resort of the righteous 
in the midst of every storm of mortal peril. When 
you go from this sanctuary and from these homes, it 
may be forever. Among those who have gone before 
you, five — Brooks, Miles, Taft, Whitcomb, and Waters, 
— have gone never to return to us.* Their memory is 
fresh in our hearts. It will ever remain so. That is 
truly " sacred soil" to us now where they lay down to 
die a martyr's death. They, with other radiant souls, 
were not permitted to reap on earth the full reward of 
their unshrinking sacrifice. 



* Note.— Let the names of Daniel S. Brooks, Danvebs Miles, Josiah 0. Taft, Lucius 
Whitcomb, and Stlvanus C. Waters, be reconletl, as being the first of the company of brave 
volunteers who liave gone from this comraunit.v, wlio fell while in the service of their country. 
Since this discourse was written, Jonas 1*'orristall and Albert G. Stone have lieeu added to 
the number of Fi'eedora's martyrs. 



21 

Forget not God. I beseech you. Be his holy word 
your guide. Think much upon its precepts, and let 
them enter into your daily life, and in the day of trial, 
when dangers gather thick around, your soul shall not 
be afraid of " the pestilence that walketh in darkness, 
nor the destruction that wasteth at noonday." '• Fight 
the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life." 

* * * * " By few is gloiy's wi-eath attained ; 

But death, or soon or late, awaiteth all. 
To figlit ill Freedom's cause is something gained. 

And nothing I(i<t to fall." 



" Who lives for country, through his arm feels all her forces tiow ; 
'Tis easy to be brave for trutli as for the rose to lilow." 



" Oh ! Law, fair form of Liberty, God's light is on thy brow. 

Oil ! Liberty, thou soul of Law, God's very self art thou. 

One the clear river's sparkling flood that clothes the bank with green. 

And one the line of stubborn rock that holds the waters in." 

*■****•**■*»*** 
" Oh ! daughter of the bleeding Past, Oh ! hope the Prophet.s saw — 
God give us Law in Liberty, and Liberty in Law." 





















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